MSP airport operating smoothly despite furloughed staff
Operations at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport are largely unaffected a day after air traffic controllers started furlough because of government spending cuts, airport officials say.
The reduced staffing has not caused trouble with flights, airport spokesman Patrick Hogan said.
"So far, we really haven't seen any impact here at MSP," Hogan said. "It's going to be difficult to know in some cases when there are delays elsewhere, whether they're being caused by sequestration or whether they are because of maintenance or weather or other kinds of issues."
The FAA is implementing "traffic management" initiatives but is reporting normal flight conditions at most airports. The agency says it has staffing challenges at its New York, Dallas-Fort Worth Center, Jacksonville, Florida and Los Angeles air traffic control centers.
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The New York City metro airports and Baltimore-Washington International are experiencing longer than normal delays because of weather, maintenance and a need to delay flights so that controllers can manage traffic.
The FAA said travelers can expect to see a wide range of delays that will change throughout the day depending on staffing and the weather.
On Sunday, there were about 400 flight delays that could be attributed to reduced air traffic controller staffing arising from furloughs, according to the FAA.
• Flight delay information - Air Traffic Control System Command Center